"Chief" joke on Tonight Show

On the Tonight Show Friday (7/24/09), Conan O'Brien told a joke about Indians:What else is going on?

A big victory for Native Americans. I don't know if you heard this. A federal appeals court ruled the government must pay millions of dollars in land royalties to Native Americans.

[loud cheers and applause] Yeah, which is good. That's good, yeah. Yup.

Yeah, the ruling was a triumph for top Native American lawyer...Chief Golfs with Dershowitz.Comment:  On the plus side, Conan brought the Indian trust case to people's attention. It's probably the first and last time most of them will hear about it.

On the minus side, he undercut the information with a lame "Indian name" joke. Probably the only thing people will remember is the chief with the funny name.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.